Discuss @David Flin 's latest article here
An otherwise well-written and -researched 1632 spinoff was ruined for me by the fact that a character (who I think was grandfathered in from Flint 'n' Weber so not this writer's fault) in seventeenth century England is called Victoria.It’s also, of course, something that you highlight the alternate history with if your point of departure is far back enough. George wasn’t an unheard of name in England before the 1700s, with the number of men named for Saint George, but it wasn’t nearly as common as it would become after there’d been a George I, George II and George III. Victoria was essentially unknown among the English before there was a monarch named that, to the point that there was a very significant move in Parliament to try and force her to either adopt a good English name like Mary or Elizabeth upon taking the throne.
Is yours a timeline where no one bats an eyelash at a trio of brothers named Frederick, Jonathan and Septimius, or is that as odd a combination as it would be in OTL? And, of course, this makes it important what you name your characters — do you want your readers to feel this timeline to be odd, or not?
It's also quite plausible (with PODs rather later than you might think) for actual patronymics, not just patronymic-derived surnames, to still be normal in Wales.If I was going to go for the single biggest simple change here it would be over patrynomic surnames.
It could be quite possible for the historically Welsh fashion of 'name-s' to take root in England over 'name-son', but there's also the possibility for Irish style 'o'-name' or 'o-name' or perhaps something like 'sona-name' or for something from Welsh leading to it being really common to see people walking around called 'Mr. Ayan' or 'Miss Arhos'.